Eliécer Silva Celis (Floresta, Colombia, 20 January 1914 – Sogamoso, 4 July 2007) was a Colombian anthropologist, archaeologist, professor and writer. Biography Eliécer Silva Celis – Pueblos Originarios He is considered a pioneer in the anthropology of Colombia. Falleció Eliécer Silva Celis, pionero de la antropología en Colombia y fundador del Museo de Suamox – El Tiempo Silva Celis is known in Colombia for the reconstruction of the Sun Temple, the most important temple of the Muisca religion.
Eliécer Silva Celis has published many books and articles about the Muisca and other indigenous groups of Colombia, only in Spanish.List of works by Eliécer Silva Celis – WorldCat
Biography
Eliécer Silva Celis was born in Tobasía, vereda of Floresta, Boyacá on January 20, 1914. He became an orphan at young age and worked as street vendor and at the construction of the railway of Antioquia.
In 1937, at age 23, Silva Celis managed to finish his secondary education. The same year he entered the Escuela Normal Superior de Colombia in Bogotá, where Silva Celis got to know later famous people who fled the Nazis in Europe: Paul Rivet, Rudolf Hommes, Justus W. Schottellius, José Francisco Socarras, Gregorio Hernández de Alba and José de Recasens, among others. They taught Silva Celis ethnology, archaeology, physical anthropology, history, philosophy and linguistics.
In 1942 Silva Celis uncovered a Muisca cemetery with indigenous tombs in the Mochacá neighbourhood in Sogamoso. He found Muisca mummies and could establish the precise location where the Temple of the Sun of the Muisca had been. The Temple, dedicated to Muisca Sun god Sué, was destroyed by soldiers in the army of Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada on September 4, 1537. When De Quesada's soldiers Miguel Sánchez and Juan Rodríguez Parra raided the Sun Temple in September 1537, they found mummies decorated with golden crowns and other objects sitting on raised platforms.Rodríguez Cuenca, 2007, p.115 With the finding of the location of the temple, he founded the Parque Indígena del Sol, present-day site of the Archaeology Museum in Sogamoso. The museum hosts more than 5000 pieces of the Muisca civilisation. In this museum he also reconstructed the Sun Temple. Later, Eliécer Silva Celis rediscovered El Infiernito, close to Villa de Leyva, an astronomical observatory of the Muisca. Silva Celis founded the Archaeological Park in Monquirá.
In 1943, Eliécer Silva Celis found five skulls which were later dated to be between 8890 and 8630 years old. Tras las huellas del boyacense más antiguo
In 1944, Silva Celis studied the famous Tierradentro culture of Huila, findings from La Belleza in Santander and in the following years the Lache of the Sierra Nevada del Cocuy.Rodríguez Cuenca, 2007, p.117
The mummy from Sativanorte, named SO10-IX belongs to the collection of Silva Celis in the Archaeology Museum of Sogamoso. It has been studied in detail by various researchers.Otálora Cascante, 2006, p.5 The mummy has been donated to Silva Celis by Abraham López Ávila in 1962. Interviews with López Ávila revealed that the mummy had been found by children in the vicinity of Sativanorte, Sativasur and Socotá on the western bank of the Chicamocha River.Martínez et al., 2010, p.115
Silva Celis was co-founder of the UPTC in Tunja, Boyacá in 1953. He served as rector of the university twice. In 1966, Silva Celis studied Muisca stones found in Mongua, Boyacá. Estatua Antropomorfa Original #S 027- XVII – Mongua Silva Celis has written more than 400 articles.Ardila & Correal, 2010, p.11
Eliécer Silva Celis died on July 4, 2007, at an age of 93 years, after dedicating more than 60 years of his life to knowledge about the Muisca and other indigenous groups in Colombia.
Works This list is a selection.
Books 2006 – Estudios sobre la cultura chibcha 1979 – Proyecto del parque arqueológico y botánico en villa de Leyva: sitio "El Infiernito" 1968 – Arqueología y prehistoria de Colombia; [Bochica o Nemqueteba] 1967 – Antiguedad de la civilizacin̤ Chibcha 1966 – Las estatuas de la Salina de Mongua 1945 – Contribucion al conocimiento de la civilización de los Lache
Articles 1965 – Una inspeccion arqueologica por el alto Rio Minero 1965 – Antigüedad y relaciones de la civilización Chibcha 1963 – Los petroglifos de "El Encanto" – Florencia, Caquetá 1963 – Movimiento de la civilización agustiniana sobre el alto Amazonas 1962 – Pinturas rupestres precolombinas de Sáchica, Valle de Leiva 1951 – Investigación de antropología social en Tota, Boyacá 1947 – Sobre arqueología y antropología Chibcha 1946 – Cráneos de Chiscas
Trivia Honouring Silva Celis, the Archaeology Museum, Sogamoso, administered by his anthropologist daughter, has been renamed after him Eliécer Silva Celis es el nuevo nombre del museo Arqueológico Suamox, de Sogamoso – El Tiempo UPTC rindió homenaje a Eliecer Silva Celis, en Sogamoso
See also
List of Muisca scholars Muisca art Muisca Muisca mummification, Sun Temple El Infiernito, Archaeology Museum Silva Celis, Sáchica
References
Notable works by Silva Celis
Bibliography
External links Interview with Eliécer Silva Celis Video about the Sun Temple in Sogamoso